//------------------------------// // Preparing to Explore // Story: Let's Play: Equestria Online! // by Jakinbandw //------------------------------// A Quick Note On How I Am Posting This So I don't have internet. I do however have a signal on my Pony Pad. I hope I don't rack up massive charges for this, but I'm going to try posting this from inside Equestria Online. If it works than I guess as they say; “Have pony, will travel.” Thankfully the game didn't censor anything I was writing. I suspect that Celestia figured that posting this satisfies my values. I am still sick, and today was rough so this post is probably going to be shorter than usual. Another thing to note is that Forest Trails is leaning over my shoulder as I write this. This means that I can't actually fill you in on my entire session today because it isn't over yet. Just a fair warning that the post today might not contain everything that has happened, and that Forest Trails is aware of everything I say in it. She's currently asking me about what I mean when I say 'massive charges' for instance. Oh boy. In Which We Finally Leave The Table I logged in and found myself sitting at the same restaurant yet again. Forest Trails sitting across from me again as well. I suppressed an urge to flip the table out of seeing it yet again, and stood up instead. Forest Trails stood as well. “Is something the matter?” She asked, a bit of worry in her voice. I shook my head, “No, I just realized that I have sitting at this table for the last three days and needed a change of scenery.” “That's fair I guess. Nothing else?” She said sounding a bit concerned. I blushed a bit, “Well, back where I come from there is a running joke about flipping tables.” She stared at me, “What.” “It was a neat bit of art that got circulated around and caught on.” I shrugged, “For a second I was tempted.” “That's just weird,” She said shaking her head. She turned and started walking, and I fell into step beside her, “Anyway, if you are done fooling around I think that it's time that we finally paid Free Breeze a visit don't you think? I ran into him at noon and he was wondering why you never went to see him like you promised.” “Oops,” I said, remembering back to our meeting, “Yeah, I'd better go see him and apologize.” Leaving the Open Air Restaurant behind We walked over to Free Breezes shop. It was a two story affair, and from what I had heard, he and his wife lived upstairs. On the front of the Shop hung a sign that showed a map with the words 'Maps To Adventure.' Through the window I could see several scrolls on racks that I assumed were maps. We stepped inside and a bell above the door jingled causing Free Breeze to look up from where he was sitting behind a counter with a book. Seeing us he put down his book. “Welcome My Boy, I was starting to wonder if you had gotten sent to the moon!” I grinned, “Sorry about that. Several things came up that I had to deal with.” I picked up a scroll and opened it to see that it was indeed a map, “I actually have a proper name now,” I set the scroll back down, “Treasure Island at your service!” “That's a good name,” he said, “So have you given any thought to working with me doing some freelance exploration?” I nodded, “It does sound fun. When is the soonest I could start?” “He glanced at a calendar on the wall,” Tomorrow would be probably the best time. “My wife Travelling Breeze should be back later tonight and she can watch the store while we're out.” I nodded, “That would work for me.” I turned to Forest Trails, “Would that be fine with you?” She nodded, “Yeah. I'll have to let my family know that I'll be gone for a while so they can pick up the slack while I am gone, but this seems pretty interesting.” “Looks like you have a deal Mr. Breeze” I said, giving a joking salute. “Anything that we should do to prepare?” “Naw,” he shook his head. “For this first time I'll handle supplies and whatnot. How good are you with distances?” “Pretty good,” I said, “I'm used to walking specific distances in the bush anyway.” “Than that should be fine. Though I would suggest looking up a few books on earth pony navigation magic. I hear it's pretty useful,” He chuckled, “Not that I would know having this horn. It's useful, don't get me wrong, but it will be nice to have an earth pony along for a change.” “I'll see what I can find,” I turned to go then paused, “I don't suppose you know which way the library is do you?” The gave us directions and we left. Forest Trails turned out to actually know quite a bit about navigation magic, and could teach me directly, which made a lot of sense. There were some other cool things that I found too that I didn't know existed. For example; earth ponies can actually pull of a form of teleportation by bending space around them when they walk. It can't be done while they are being watched, but they can walk behind a tree, and appear miles away. That actually makes the episode where pinky is chasing Rainbow Dash make a lot more sense now that I think about it. Pinky is just really good at earth pony magic. Probably Twilight has never studied earth pony magic because she focuses so much on her study of unicorn magic. This is just a random thought though. Anyway, I'm sitting here with Forest Trails over my shoulder writing this down and hoping it will send properly. We are in the library sitting with books stacked around us with the warm glow of the firelight enveloping us. There are a few candles providing extra light, and if I look over my shoulder I can see rows upon rows of bookcases. Forest Trails brought us both hot chocolate we are sitting drinking it. It looks really good. I want to taste the hot chocolate! Anyway, I'm off to field some more of Forest Trails questions. I hope you don't mind, but she's asking me a bit about the readers, so I'm telling her about you guys. We might be hear for another hour yet with how interested she seems. Just one last thing befo Hey! Quit that!